ISLAMABAD, July 10: The international organizations like Unesco, Unicef, World Bank and CIDA have joined hands to help Pakistan to qualify for additional resources for Education For All (EFA).

Recently, the education secretary, in a meeting, told the participants that Pakistan was facing a financing gap of Rs253 billion to implement its Rs430 billion EFA project to achieve 86 per cent literacy rate by the year 2015.

An official statement on Wednesday stated that the Unesco and other donor agencies were planning to launch initiatives for the preparation of district level EFA Plans in addition to advocacy at the international level.

“The process will not only offer opportunities to the community leaders to participate in educational decision-making but also pave the way for generation of resources for the EFA at the local level,” it said.

“The Unesco, in collaboration with the partner UN agencies, the World Bank, multi-lateral and bi-lateral donors has accelerated efforts to mobilize financial resources to achieve EFA goals by the year 2015, in the developing countries where the bulk of out of schoolchildren and a majority of illiterate adults were concentrated.”